Standard Chartered offers to help build HCMC financial hub

Its chairman, Jose Vinals, told Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai at a meeting Thursday that the bank would use its expertise to assist Vietnam in these areas.

Khai said the financial hub is something that the government has been considering carefully.

"The Vietnamese government wants global corporates, including Standard Chartered, to consult it in selecting the best model for the hub."

Since the early 2000s HCMC has been considering the development of a financial market, which it expects to usher in an economic transformation.

In October last year a committee was established under Khai to develop the idea.

HCMC is where Vietnam’s first stock exchange was established and is one of the country’s main economic hubs along with Hanoi and Da Nang City.

It is in a different time zone from most major global financial hubs, which gives it an advantage in attracting investment when the others are closed for the day.

The city is just a three-hour flight from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and China.

Vinals said his bank has arranged 15% of Vietnam’s FDI in the last three years.

It just celebrated 120 years of operations in Vietnam and wants to be there for the next 120 too, he added.

Khai called on the bank to continue to act as an advisor to the government on improving the country’s credit rating and devise strategies to help the country achieve net-zero emissions.